R746-365-4. Service Quality Guidelines

A. Service Quality Applicable to All Telecommunications Corporations --

1. Carrier Provisioning Intervals -- Each telecommunications corporation shall provide essential facilities and associated services in accordance with the following provisioning intervals and shall separately measure each provisioning interval for commonly used circuit or facility types. The provisioning interval is the elapsed time measured in hours from a telecommunications corporation's receipt of a service order to return of an OCN. The percentage of service orders completed on time will be determined by the number of orders completed within the installation interval or the committed due date specified in a FOC. The cumulative elapsed time for each circuit or facility type is divided by the total number of corresponding completed service orders for each circuit or facility type to derive measures of service order flow-through, as further enumerated in R746-365-5. A telecommunications corporation shall return a FOC within two business days of receipt of a service order from another telecommunications corporation.

a. Interoffice Trunking Facilities -- Pursuant to forecasting requirements established in R746-365-6, forecasted trunk, routing and switching facilities shall be provisioned to any requesting local exchange carrier within 30 days of receipt of a service order, unless otherwise agreed to by the requesting carrier.

(i) Service Orders Presented Under Approved Forecasts -- A telecommunications corporation shall complete all service orders for essential facilities and services requested by another telecommunications corporation that comport with four-month projections contained in a joint forecast developed pursuant to R746-365-6(C).

b. Number Portability -- Telecommunications corporations shall provide either interim number portability or permanent number portability to a requesting carrier. The installation interval for interim number portability shall not exceed three business days following receipt of a service order. Permanent number portability shall be provided pursuant to Federal Communications Commission requirements.

2. Trouble Reports --

a. Receipt, Investigation and Recording -- Each telecommunications corporation shall provide for the receipt of trouble reports 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Each telecommunications corporation providing public telecommunications service shall investigate and respond to each trouble report. Each telecommunications corporation shall maintain a record of trouble reports made by end users and other telecommunications corporations which complies with R746-365-5(B)(4).

b. Emergency Out-of-Service -- Provisions shall be made to clear emergency out-of-service trouble at all hours, consistent with the public interest and the personal safety of a telecommunication corporations personnel. Emergency or alternative service shall be provided local law enforcement and public safety agencies during the period of any network interruption.

c. Notice of Unusual Repairs and Planned Interruptions -- If unusual repairs preclude prompt disposition of a reported trouble, telecommunications corporations shall notify all affected telecommunications corporations. If service must be interrupted for purposes of rearranging facilities or equipment, all affected telecommunications corporations shall be notified and the work shall be completed in the least disruptive manner in order to minimize public inconvenience.

d. Repair Intervals -- Each telecommunications corporation shall seek to clear out-of-service trouble reports received from another telecommunications corporation within the following intervals, unless other repair intervals have been agreed to:

TABLE

     DS - 3, OC - 3 and higher 2 hours

     DS - 1, Fractional DS - 1, Design DS - 0, and

     Local Interconnection Trunks 4 hours

     Residential and Business Resale POTS 24 hours

The repair interval for clearing a trouble between telecommunications corporations is the elapsed time measured in hours and tenths of hours from the time a trouble report is received by a telecommunications corporation to the time the telecommunications corporation returns a valid trouble resolution notification. Elapsed time shall be measured by common circuit or facility types and trouble disposition and closure recorded in accordance with R365-5(B)(4).

3. Network Performance Levels -- Each telecommunications corporation shall engineer, furnish and install essential facilities and services designed to meet busy hour demand, and to prevent unreasonable blocking. The following minimum network performance standards apply to:

a. Interoffice Facilities --

(i) Local and extended area service interoffice trunk facilities shall have a minimum engineering design standard of (P.01) grade of service.

(ii) Intertandem facilities shall have a minimum engineering design standard of B.0025 (P.0025) grade of service.

b. Outside Plant -- Each telecommunications corporation shall engineer, construct and maintain cable and wire between an end user network interface device and the serving wire center in conformance with current industry standards, as described in R746-365-3(B), and common engineering practices.

B. Service Quality and Other Network Guidelines Applicable to ILECs --

1. Operational Support Systems --

a. OSS Interfaces -- Each ILEC shall undertake all commercially reasonable efforts to facilitate parity of access to operational support systems the incumbent local exchange carrier uses to store and retrieve information related to network engineering and administration.

b. Testing of OSS Interfaces -- Each telecommunications corporation shall upon request jointly conduct with one or more telecommunications corporations testing of OSS interfaces used to obtain access to operational support systems. OSS Interface testing shall commence not more than 45 days after a request for testing is received by a telecommunications corporation. The telecommunications corporations shall determine the duration of tests which shall be conducted among noncommercial end user accounts. No unreasonable limitation shall be imposed by an ILEC on another telecommunications corporation's ability to test intercarrier OSS Interfaces to ensure compatibility between ILEC and the other telecommunications corporation's operational support systems.

2. Network Provisioning Intervals -- Each ILEC shall provide essential facilities and services that comply with the following installation intervals:

a. Network Elements -- Each ILEC shall provision essential network facilities and services in accordance with the following intervals and shall measure provisioning intervals for each of the following loop facilities and services as described in R746-365-5-(C)(3)(c).

(i) Unbundled Loops -- Provisioning intervals for an unbundled loop will vary by circuit and facility type, the number of loops requested on a service order, availability of facilities and whether or not a dispatch of ILEC personnel must occur. The following essential facilities will be provisioned for telecommunications corporations within the specified intervals.

TABLE

Facility Type Quantity Interval

DSO or analog equivalent, dispatch,

facilities available: 1 - 24 5 days

                                         24 - n negotiated

DSO or voice grade equivalent,

no dispatch: 1 - 24 3 days

                                         24 - n 7-10 days

DS1 -- Facilities provisioned and available: 5 days

ISDN -- Facilities provisioned and available: 7 days

XDSL -- Facilities provisioned and available: 7 days

DS3 -- Facilities provisioned and available: 7 days

OC3 -- Facilities provisioned

and available: 15 days

OC4 - Higher -- Facilities provisioned

and available: 15 days or

                                                    negotiated

                                                    due date.

b. Wholesale Services -- Installation intervals for wholesale services shall vary depending upon whether an existing end user service provided by an ILEC is transferred to another telecommunications corporation, or, is a new service installation.

(i) An ILEC shall transfer wholesale services without changes for an existing end user served by the ILEC within one business day following receipt of a service order from the telecommunications corporation.

(ii) An ILEC shall transfer wholesale service with changes for an existing end user served by the ILEC within three business days following receipt of a service order from the telecommunications corporation.

(iii) An ILEC shall install new wholesale service to a new end user, if facilities are available, within three days following receipt of a service order from the telecommunications corporation.

c. Collocation -- The following provisioning intervals and optional arrangements are common to both virtual and physical collocation:

(i) Upon receipt by an ILEC of a request for collocation, the ILEC shall within 15 days notify the telecommunications corporation whether sufficient space exists. If the telecommunications corporation disputes an ILECs denial of a request for collocation, and the carriers cannot negotiate a mutually satisfactory resolution, the telecommunications corporation may petition the Commission pursuant to Section 54-8b-17 for an expedited hearing and resolution of the dispute. The burden shall be on the ILEC to demonstrate to the Commission that collocation is not practical due to space limitations or is technically infeasible.

(ii) If collocation is available, the ILEC shall within 25 days following receipt of a request for collocation provide a written quotation containing all non-recurring charges for construction of the telecommunications corporation's requested collocation arrangement.

(iii) The telecommunications corporation shall within 30 days following receipt of the ILEC's quotation, by written notice to the ILEC: 1) accept the quotation; 2) withdraw the request for collocation; or, 3) provide the ILEC an independent contractor quotation for construction of the requested collocation arrangement.

(iv) If the telecommunication corporation accepts the quotation from the ILEC, collocation equipment shall be installed on the ILEC's premises in accordance with the following provisioning intervals: 1) For physical collocation arrangements, the ILEC shall within 45 days of the telecommunication corporation's acceptance of the ILEC's quotation complete construction of the collocation space necessary and sufficient for installation of the CLEC's collocated interconnection facilities. The ILEC shall grant the telecommunications corporation access to the collocation space to install network elements therein. 2) For virtual collocation arrangements, the ILEC shall within 45 days after delivery of the telecommunication corporation's collocation equipment complete provisioning of all network facilities ordered by the telecommunications corporation.

(v) If the telecommunication corporation provides the ILEC an independent contractor quotation for construction associated with a collocation arrangement, the ILEC shall within 15 days of receipt of the quotation: 1) accept the proposal and grant to the independent contractor access to the ILEC's premises to complete construction of the collocation space and installation of the collocated interconnection facilities; 2) amend the ILEC's own quotation to perform on substantially similar terms, including, without limitation, price, the services specified in the independent contractor's quotation. If the telecommunication corporation accepts the ILEC's amended quotation, construction of the collocation space shall proceed as described in R746-365-4(B)(3)(c)(iv); or, 3) reject the proposal. If the ILEC refuses to accept an independent contractor quotation or amend its own quotation, the telecommunications corporation may petition the Commission for an expedited hearing and resolution of the dispute pursuant to R746-365-8(B).